State of Matters
by Adelram
Summary: Gray was broke. With no money insight he takes a request. What is so special about this request? Why it pairs him with Juvia. When there mission reveals hidden feelings, how will the state of things change. Will it be for the worse, or hopefully for the better. Beta by AjaxVibe


AN: This is my first fanfic so any advice and or helpful suggestions would be nice. The fic will be mostly Gruvia with a few other pairings in the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or its characters they belong to Hiro Mashima.

Gray walked into the Fairy Tail guild hall a little depressed. He was running out of money and now he had to take a job. He had been enjoying his brief respite, from not working, but he had bills coming up, that he had to pay, and no money to pay them with. Thus the cause of all his dilemmas. He trudged over to the job board ignoring the greetings sent his way. Luckily Natsu was away on a job, with Lucy and Happy as usual, so he did not have to deal with his insane fire breathing friend.

Having reached the board that would help him solve his problems, Gray began to glance at the sheets of paper. 'Lame, not enough pay, to long,' he thought as he scanned the jobs. 'Oh here is one. Transport water and freeze it, so they can have ice. Lets see details. Desert town, festival, want to keep drinks cool, and need to refill well. Ok this is easy. Just need a way to transport the water there and then I can freeze it. Now how am I going to do this,' Gray thought.

As he was pondering the answer to his question a person snuck up on him. "Gray-sama!" Juvia explained while hugging his arm. Gray looked down at the blue haired mage with a eyebrow raised. Suddenly a idea popped into his head. 'Yah this is going to be perfect.' Gray thought.

"Juvia how would you like to go on to a job with me?" Gray asked with a sly smirk. The job was simple and the pay was perfect to split between the two mages. Juvia being the only water mage in Fairy tail made her the only logical choice.

"What kind of job is it Gray-sama!?" Juvia said excited at the thought of going on a mission with her Gray-sama. She also was looking for job at the time she saw Gray and thought of greeting him. Who knew that it would result on the two teaming up for a mission.

"Well it's a job out in a desert town, the job is to move some water then freeze it for use in a festival that they will be holding soon." answered Gray.

"Gray-sama and Juvia would be perfect for it!" exclaimed Juvia ecstatically "Oh, can Gray-sama and Juvia stay and enjoy their festival for awhile after the job!?" Juvia asked in excitement. She bounced from foot to foot waiting for his answer. She was practically bursting with curiosity as to what the answer would be. She really hoped her Gray-sama would want to spend some together time after the mission together. Gray started pondering the question that he was asked 'Why would Juvia want to stay at a festival with me? Well I don't have anything better to do and I am not going to lie she is pretty attractive... Where the hell did that thought come from! Ok focus Gray, focus.'

"That sounds like fun." Gray responded. Hearing his response Juvia's eyes lit up with uncontrollable joy because he had accepted her request to stay for the towns festival.

She began to look to the floor trying to hide the thrill she got from his response. "When should we be ready to depart Gray-sama?" Juvia asked with a light shade of red on her cheeks.

"The job is set for tomorrow so we can have tonight to get everything ready. Meet me here at 7 am so we can get some breakfast and discuss what we will do for the mission and stuff like that," answered Gray. "The job itself shouldn't take too long; however, since we're going to stay for the festival, will we stay there the entire time or just for a day?" Gray asked.

"How long is the festival supposed to be Gray-sama?" Juvia questioned with curiosity.

"Well we will be working a day before and a day into the festival. The festival itself is a week long so will we be staying for the whole time or just a few days?" Gray asked the bluenette.

The water mage had a puzzled expression on her face. 'Did Gray-sama want to spend more time with Juvia?'. "Would you want to stay there the whole time Gray-sama?" Juvia asked hoping Gray would say yes.

Gray started thinking about the pros and cons and why the water mage asked if he wanted to stay the whole time 'Cons? Are there any cons of hanging at a festival for about a week having fun and be with a friend that is cute... Wait what was that!? Why does my head keep doing this!'. "We can stay for the whole time. We will travel by train, it says travel and living arrangements are paid for. The train is at 8:30, so we will be there by about noon sound good?" Gray asked Juvia.

Juvia couldn't believe that he said yes. She started wondering what the living arrangements were, but instead she put the thought off remembering that they will discuss the mission tomorrow while getting some breakfast. Instead the bluenette replied "Sounds fine Juvia should go now and get ready for tomorrow bye Gray-sama!" As Juvia walked off she thought of the two of them at the festival day dreaming of the possibilities and giggled at the thought.

"See yah Juvia." Gray said his farewell as well and thought 'Now that she mentions it, it is 9 pm might as well go home, get everything ready, have dinner, and get some sleep for tomorrow as well'.

"Well that's everything for now." Gray said exasperated 'Now to finally get ready and go to bed'. After completing his usual nightly routines he laid in bed forcing his eyes shut, and tried not to let his mind get too carried away in its thoughts. The last thing that Gray remembered thinking of was what was with all the reoccurring thoughts of Juvia after that he fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

...

The next day was nice, the sun was barely up in the sky, it was a little cloudy, a perfect day to depart for a mission. Gray woke up and got ready to head over to the guild. As he was approaching the guilds front door he already spotted the bluenette sitting at a table waiting for him. He went up to her "Good morning Juvia," he said casually, letting his pack slide off his shoulders next to her bag and sitting next to her.

"Good morning Gray-sama!" the water mage said joyfully "What is there to discuss about the mission?" After discussing the needed details Gray remembered that they haven't discussed the housing provided yet.

Gray thought to himself and at that moment a certain detail he over looked was suddenly in bold 'two bed apartment with a small kitchen will be provided for the two mages' Gray read in his head with a puzzled expression on his face. 'How am I supposed to tell her this? Crap, well too late to make a plan now...'Gray thought. Direct was more his style anyway. "Well I don't know if I mentioned it, but the living accommodations that the town will be providing is an apartment with two beds," Gray mumbled looking off into the distance. Juvia's face immediately turned bright red at the thought.

"Juvia is ok with it." She said suddenly becoming interested in the table they were sitting at.

Gray's face was a little red as well, but he managed to recover and say, "that's about it we can head over to the train station soon."

On their way to the station they encountered Gajeel and Levy apparently heading to the train station as well. "Hello you two," Juvia said in greeting. She received a nod, of greeting, from Gajeel, and a wave, from Levy.

"Hey Juvia are you going out on a mission as well?" asked Levy grinning happily at her friend.

"Yup, Gray-sama and Juvia are doing a mission for a desert town." replied Juvia. As the two went on talking about the missions, what the two groups are doing, and about the other two mages, without them knowing that they were talking about them.

"Ever since Gajeel and I started dating a few months ago we started to do things together like missions and going out on dates." Levy told Juvia with a huge smile on her face. "Thank you for helping him ask Juvia," She told the water mage looking at her with gratitude, and Juvia could see, in Levy's eyes, that she truly cared and loved her best friend. She was happy for the two of them.

"Juvia wants to let you know, that she didn't help Gajeel ask. That was all him, even the way that he asked you was made up by him. All he told Juvia was that he hoped you'd say yes. Juvia knows that Gajeel care's a lot for you Levy even before you two were together, I'm glad to know that you two are happy." Juvia told the script mage.

"Thank you Juvia,"Levy said kindly to Juvia. "Oh, one more thing out of all my years in Fairy Tail, Gray has never acted the way he acts towards you with anyone else. I think deep down he cares a lot for you but can not really make out his feelings. Anyways I hope that one day you two will get together. I think you would make a cute couple," Levy said, with a cheerful expression.

As the two girls continued their conversations, Gray and Gajeel couldn't tell what they were saying, so they to discussed among themselves. "Any idea what they're talking about stripper?" Gajeel asked, looking onward at the two girls.

"No idea, who knows but it looks like they're having fun," replied Gray. They both turned, looking onward at the giggling girls ahead of them.

"Well it been nice talking to you Juvia, but we have to go now right Gajeel?" Levy said looking up to her boyfriend.

"Yeah our trains about to depart, late Juvia and Gray." Gajeel said to the other two mages.

"We should get together later and talk more Levy. Juvia had fun," said Juvia, with a smile and waving good bye.

"Sure sounds like fun Juvia, we'll see you guys later bye!" Levy said walking away hugging Gajeel's arm.

"See yah Gajeel and Levy," Gray said standing beside Juvia also waving at the departing couple. The last thing Gray and Juvia heard was Gajeel asking what they talked about and Levy replying not to worry about it. "We better go too our we will miss our train," said Gray, turning to look at Juvia.

"Alright Gray-sama," replied Juvia cheerfully. The two mages got on the train and left Magnolia unaware of what was going to happen next.

**AN: Please review, leave any advice or suggestions it would be really appreciated, and would help my writing.**


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